The main means of analysing a company’s financial situation is their published financial statements. through them, financial analysts and investors receive substantial and reliable information.
The challenges that companies now face in compiling their published financial statements are several with particular emphasis on external factors such as a global financial crisis, a pandemic (e.g. Covid-19) and climate change, which should be reflected with the greatest degree of accuracy and credibility in their published financial statements.
by Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis
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Only in this way will companies be able to re-gain confidence with the markets in terms of the reliability of their financial statements.
So, in an urgent way for companies, issues such as financial risk management, access to competitive financing, the recoverability of the value of assets that want reliable solutions come to the fore.
In addition to these issues, however, external factors such as the economic management of a pandemic and climate change and the transition to green development are also presented.
The contribution of companies to climate change and the transition of the green economy will be crucial, but inevitably by putting on the table issues of redefinition and re-orientation of their available funds towards green investments, their compliance with green production of their products, the change of their business plan, to achieve at the same time economic efficiency with social and environmental sustainability.
It is indisputable that all these actions will have a direct or indirect impact on their results, such as negative asset reduction forecasts or improved liquidity through government subsidies.
Many companies provide information in their reports on sustainability issues, but these are not clearly seen in their published financial statements.
International Accounting Standards do not explicitly refer to climate change issues. To fill this gap, the Council of International Accounting Standards recently announced the release of educational material on how companies should consider the potential impact on their financial situation regarding climate change.
This material consists of explanations and examples on issues of identification and measurement of data, as well as the provision of qualitative and quantitative notifications.
For this reason, the impact on balance sheets and results from climate change and other external factors should be assessed in a timely manner with a view to providing meaningful and reliable information on all their published financial statements.
